"The preliminary examination for children in March?"

Only after the old man finished his rambling did Feng Bingwen enter the courtyard. After waving away the misty illusion, he pondered the old man's request.

He naturally knew what the old man was thinking. It was his obsession and lifelong wish: to see the Feng family produce another scholar who passed the imperial examination, truly bringing glory to the family.

As for his father, Feng Zichuan, who passed the imperial examination, abandoned his studies, and went into business, he was considered a heretic in the eyes of the old man and never came back. Otherwise, at the very least, his leg would have been broken.

What ranking should I aim for?

This is the question Feng Bingwen is pondering now. Before unlocking the Heavenly Book, his initial dream was simply to become a scholar, but now times have changed, and his pursuit has long since changed. The so-called scholar is not even worthy of carrying his shoes.

If he were to participate in the imperial examination, Feng Bingwen felt that he had a good chance of passing and becoming a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), and might even be personally selected as the top scholar by the emperor.

It wasn't that he was exceptionally learned or talented, but rather that Feng Bingwen knew the government's views on him were very complex, unpredictable, and that they mostly catered to him.

Moreover, the results of the imperial examinations were sometimes affected by many factors. Simply being well-versed in the Four Books and Five Classics would at most earn one the title of a junior scholar, but would not lead to great success.

Starting with the prefectural examination, policy essays were included in the examination content. The examiners would set the questions, and the candidates would answer them. Since there were no standard answers, the results were naturally determined by the chief examiner.

Therefore, before each imperial examination, candidates with connections would try every means to find out about the examiner they were going to take the exam, including his political views and personality, and then answer questions based on these information in order to cater to the examiner's preferences and thus get a good ranking.

This situation would continue until the palace examination, which was actually used to rank the successful candidates who had passed the provincial examination. At this stage, it became even more absurd, as it was mostly based on looks and character.

If one stands out in appearance among all the successful candidates, the emperor might appoint one as the third-ranked scholar. As for the top scholar, he would naturally be the one with the most outstanding literary talent. However, if one's appearance did not meet the requirements, the emperor might dismiss him. There are such cases in previous dynasties.

This shows that if one wanted to become an official in the imperial court, it wasn't enough to just study hard. Starting from the prefectural examination, one had to figure out the examiners' intentions and cater to their wishes.

For Feng Bingwen, who pursued immortality and carefree existence, this situation was naturally unacceptable. Asking him to fathom the thoughts of a group of officials and ponder their political views was simply out of the question.

However, this was also the old man's request; even simply boycotting the exam wouldn't be fair. After all, he had raised and educated him, and this debt of gratitude had to be repaid.

"Why don't we follow my dad's example and take the imperial examination to become a scholar? Then we can just say that we did our best."

Feng Bingwen pondered for a moment, then made up his mind that the imperial examinations were just something to take casually and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

"The old man was so angry that he simply let him take the imperial examination again. Anyway, he's as strong as an ox now. Even an old horse in its stall can still have lofty ambitions."

After pondering these trivial matters, the filial grandson Feng Bingwen began to organize the spoils of his trip to the Dragon Palace.

Well, although he went to deliver a gift, the Dragon King Xuan Ting was a true dragon and returned a valuable gift to him.

"Hmm, Great Luo Silver Essence, Immortal Azure Gold, Taiyi Refined Gold, Starry Divine Sand..."

Feng Bingwen took out the belt that the Dragon King had given him as a return gift, and extracted the rare and precious materials from this storage magic treasure, which were worth hundreds or thousands of times more.

Each type of divine material may seem small, but for example, the Great Luo Silver Essence is only the size of a fist, yet it weighs several thousand kilograms, an astonishing amount. Such divine materials are rare even for the wealthy and powerful Dragon Palace.

Clang~

After taking out these few rare and precious materials one by one, the sound of weapons trembling resounded from Feng Bingwen's body. This time, Feng Bingwen did not restrain himself and let a broken divine weapon leap out of his body.

Sword Comes

Even though this divine weapon couldn't speak, Feng Bingwen, who had already refined it, could feel its joy. Its current broken state was like it was missing an arm or a leg. Now that there were celestial treasures and divine materials, it meant that it could be restored to its original state. How could he not be happy?

"Can you absorb it yourself? If not, I can cultivate a supernatural power to assist you."

Feng Bingwen looked at Fang Tianji, who had started circling around his room, and asked.

With an innate Five Elements Dao Body, one can cultivate all Daoist techniques and supernatural powers in the world without hindrance. Not only in the path of cultivation, but even if one chooses alchemy or weapon forging, one would be an unparalleled genius.

Although his cultivation level was low, he had the blessing of the Dao Body, which allowed him to cultivate the renowned Nanming Li Fire. He could even cultivate the True Fire of the Sun. However, the most suitable for refining weapons was the Samadhi True Fire and his foundation, which gave rise to the Civil and Martial Fire, and transformed into the Six Ding Divine Fire.

Clang~

However, Feng Bingwen's good intentions were met with an unappreciated response. The broken divine weapon transformed into a blood-red divine light, rolled up the divine material, and entered his body, transforming into an oval-shaped blood cocoon, which began to repair itself.

"It's quite worry-free."

Seeing this, Feng Bingwen observed it for a moment and, finding that the divine weapon was indeed beginning to recover, became too lazy to pay any more attention to it.

However, this scene made Feng Bingwen realize once again how extraordinary the broken divine weapon he had obtained was. There are very few magical artifacts and treasures in this world that can repair themselves.

"And you? Do you need any materials?"

After resolving the issue of the Fangtian Halberd's damage, Feng Bingwen calmed himself down and inquired about another major source within his body, receiving a sword chant filled with rebellious intent.

All I need are the remains of the ferocious demon ancestor!

This was the Ancient Sword Tower's response, and Feng Bingwen was helpless about it. This was a weapon of slaughter forged by human sword immortals in the early days of human civilization in order to survive, and it was different from the mainstream magic weapons in the cultivation world today.

After dealing with the Dragon King's return gift, Feng Bingwen looked at the old Dragon Kings who had paid him for viewing the dragon script characters he had written.

A sacred tea tree!

A complete set of magical tea utensils!

A paperweight with a coiled dragon design!

The spirit tea tree can be planted in the courtyard when you have time, but Feng Bingwen's attention was still focused on the gift given by the Crimson Dragon King.

"Bai Yujing!"

It is said to be a palace excavated from the ruins of a long-lost immortal sect, and it is only a part of the layout of that immortal sect's mountain gate, one of the twelve towers and five cities.

Feng Bingwen has no intention of collecting all the other floors scattered around; he only wants to refine and control this palace city.

"According to that Dragon King's description, I only need a thought to break the Mustard Seed Restriction and allow the Jade Palace to truly manifest."

As always, Feng Bingwen was exceptionally decisive. Before he could even settle in, he once again flew out of the Feng family mansion and headed towards the sky above Wolong Lake.

Considering the scale of Baiyujing, which might be somewhat exaggerated, in order to avoid disturbing the people of Qingshan County, Feng Bingwen acted on a whim and gathered a large cloud, forming a huge cloud cluster stretching for dozens of miles above Wolong Lake.

After doing all this, Feng Bingwen took out the miniature palace given to him by the Dragon King, which was wrapped in a pale red spherical magic barrier. He gently raised his hand and touched the magic barrier.

*Smack*

Just as the Dragon King said, the magical barrier shattered at the slightest touch, and the white jade palace, which was only a foot square, suddenly expanded in the wind. In the blink of an eye, a magnificent white jade palace, with its towering buildings, carved railings, and palaces, appeared, suspended above the clouds.

A palace city, spanning thirty miles, suddenly appeared. Its majestic palaces and pavilions immediately caused the celestial energy to tremble, with winds rising and clouds surging. Below it, Wolong Lake was filled with towering waves, crashing against the shore.

The emergence of this precious treasure was bound to cause celestial changes. Feng Bingwen had some foresight, but he still underestimated the changes caused by the white jade crystal.

The cloud formation he had gathered using dragon techniques, stretching for dozens of miles, was torn to shreds almost the instant Bai Yujing appeared.

However, Baiyujing did not appear in the eyes of ordinary people because this palace, which had just broken free from the restrictions of the law, seemed to be "hungry" for its needs. When it appeared in the world, it devoured the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which then triggered the strange phenomena.

However, even though the people of Qingshan County could not see Bai Yujing, they could directly feel the vortex of air caused by Bai Yujing, which immediately caused panic.

Fortunately, this strange phenomenon came and went quickly. Before the people of Qingshan County could even finish packing up their belongings after witnessing that astonishing scene, Wolong Lake returned to calm.

This is because Feng Bingwen has already set foot in Baiyujing, a veritable abode of immortals and saints, where every five steps there is a building, every ten steps a pavilion, with magnificent palaces and wondrous scenery.

It was a little disappointing that there were no immortals or saints present; only a handsome young man stepped into the place, surveying this land of myriad rays of light, auspicious vapors, and ethereal immortal energy.

“The remnants left by the ancient immortal Taiqing Dao are truly remarkable. It’s a pity that I asked Old Man Chixiao for them many times, but that old dragon refused to give them to me. I never expected that he would give them to you.”

Just as Feng Bingwen was inspecting his new home, a vast expanse of purple energy and rising demonic energy appeared. A fox spirit with snow-white fur descended from the sky, perched atop a nine-story tower, and looked down at Feng Bingwen with a rather ominous tone.

"..."

Feng Bingwen looked up at the large fox crouching between the towers, speechless, truly unsure of what to say.

This great demon saint attended the banquet, not only lying down to sleep, but now he's so unreliable, following and stalking him. It's truly speechless.

"Why is the Demon Saint not in the Dragon Palace? Why has he come to this remote and impoverished place of mine?"

Although it was a real pain, Feng Bingwen felt the demonic aura that had already permeated the entire city, so he had no choice but to speak up.

"I thought I would be the first to leave, but I didn't expect someone to leave before me. I had nothing to do, so I came over to take a look and saw that you took out the Jade Pendant."

The large fox didn't seem malicious, but Feng Bingwen couldn't detect any goodwill in it either.